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Springer Creek mill in Slocan shuts down temporarily; 35 out of work

Timothy Schafer
By Timothy Schafer
May 9th, 2011

Less than 14 months after it re-opened Slocan’s Springer Creek sawmill is closing its doors temporarily and around 35 people will be out of work in the village 75 kilometres north of Nelson.

That number could be higher but the remaining 30 staff will continue minimal operations until the market turns around, mill general manager Ralph Tomlin said last week.

He said the price for lumber and other factors such as transportation costs made it difficult for the operation to continue and be profitable.

It is expected that logging activity will resume after spring breakup, he said, and they will be selling the logs to other mills. They have one week’s worth of logs in the water of Slocan Lake right now.

One year ago in April the province’s deputy chief forester said the timber supply allowed the rate of harvest on the tree farm licence near Slocan to remain at its current level, keeping the allowable annual cut at 80,000 cubic metres per year.

The tree farm licence three covered about 79,000 hectares near the village of Slocan.

 

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